Ok.. i managed to scan a couple of sketches so i'm posting one.. This is basically a scrap, but i just wanted to show it.. perhaps i'll dump it later. Anyway, i still gave it the "brown paper treatment" just for the heck of it.

So, it's a sword design sketch i did a while ago for my Oath of FŽanor illustration (i'm working on that but i don't know when i'll have the time to finish it.. if you like you can go see the current stage here: [link] ).

Normal pencil stuff.. i wanted to show that each of these characters have a different personality and also a different fighting style. So i drew swords that seemed fitting for each of them. Some of these i had already designed and you might recognize from the earlier drawings (they are the more random ones, i guess.. ). The new ones were in part inspired by the elven heraldry by =elegaer -- many thanks!

EDIT:

After aswering a comment below I thought I'll need to explain this a bit more:

If i think of fighting styles and weapons i see Maedhros, Caranthir, Fingolfin, Fingon, Angrod and Aegnor as quite military minded characters, Finrod, Celegorm and the twins as more hunter/ranger kind and the rest as people who wielded weapons more out of necessity.

For defence, all would carry shields to battle except Fingon, Caranthir and Aegnor whom I see as more "running-straight-at-you-obvious-to-danger-while-screaming-and-wielding-a-two-handed-weapon" types as well as Celegorm and Finrod who would be skilled swordsmen and trusting their "parry-riposte-counterattack" style with a two-handed blade rather than a shield. Fingon and Celegorm (and probably Finrod, Caranthir and the twins too) also carried bows, which would be part of the reason why they didn't carry shields.

The swords are all drawn roughly to scale, so their sizes are comparable with each other. Fingon's sword is the only true two-hander; it's basically an early Medieval English type "short" two-handed sword, about 4Ĺ feet long. The swords of Fingolfin, Finrod, Aegnor, Celegorm and Caranthir are hand-and-a-half swords, or bastard swords, used with one or (mainly) both hands (though Fingolfin, being the strongest, often wielded Ringil one-handed and carried a shield). Maglor's sword is basically a cavalry sabre with some katana flavour, Curufin's is a scimitar and the swords of Turgon, Orodreth and the twins fall in the wide category of (antique style) broadswords. All these are often used with a shield. The swords of FŽanor, Maedhros and Angrod are "knight's swords" ie. long, straight-bladed broadswords used together with a shield and wielded in one hand.

First I would like to say that this is awesome!!! the art, Tolkien lore(especially the fact that most Eldar swords were straight and not curved) and the imagination...Second I would like to point that any long sword for a Noldor lord would (in average) be like a two-handed sword for a man... so I keep imagining that a two-handed Noldor sword would be probably almost the size of a man. With the exception of the Numenoreans who were very similar physically to the Eldar.

These are all gorgeous and so intricately detailed! It's amazing how closely you've managed to meld the characters of the elves to the swords they wielded. (Though I find it interesting how you see Fingon as the most aggressive fighter - I always thought personality-wise Fingolfin was more crazy-run-in-your-face-with-huge-sword than Fingon. But all personal interpretation of course ). I really like the details on the scabbards of Caranthir's and Maedhros' (especially the star!), and I really love Fingolfin's and Aegnor's, they look really cool. I love love love the metalwork details on Maglor's, and the way it curves so gracefully. I think his is the most suited to his character.Brilliant, amazing work!

I love the designs on the scabards! I was roaming around on dA tryig to figure out what weapon my OC character would be suited to, or at least, what her weapon looked like, and with your sketches , I was able to determine that she uses a hand-and-a-half sword. I love the brown paper treatment, very rustic and aged.

Hey, as I mentioned before, I do stink at swords and I'm going to be doing a really neat painting (I'm in the process of sketchwork) and was wondering if I could just improvise on the basic skeleton of some of your swords. Please?! ^_^ My scanner's too small to get all of the page in there, so I won't even be able to show it to you.